Basketball has always been more than a game. It’s the court that holds a neighborhood together, the route a kid maps for their whole life, the art form played at full speed. But the way it gets covered — stats, highlights, hot takes — rarely treats it that way.
Alleyoop Arts exists to fix that.
We make limited-edition art, a magazine, and experiences that give the game what it’s always deserved: beauty, depth, and permanence.
Why “Alleyoop”
The name is the belief. An alley-oop is the one play you cannot run alone.
Someone reads the floor. Someone trusts the lob. Someone finishes. Two people, one trust, one moment — and the crowd remembers the dunk, but the play started with the pass.
Everything we make is that pass. Thrown to the athletes the highlight reels missed. To the artists the galleries haven’t found yet. To the communities the courts hold together.
What we’re building
The art. Limited-edition prints, numbered and signed. Original work — our own catalog, our own palette, our own terms. Not licensed nostalgia. Not clip-art heat.
The magazine. Long-form stories about the people who make this game beautiful. Photo essays. Artist features. Routes — the transfers, the comebacks, the walk-aways that never make the broadcast.
The community. Events, collaborations, and a standing rule: everyone gets named. The photographer, the writer, the athlete, the artist. Every surface their work appears on carries their credit. The assist counts as much as the finish.
Why Canada
Basketball was invented by a Canadian. The reigning MVP grew up in Hamilton. And the country’s basketball story — the outdoor courts, the winter gyms, the kids mapping routes through American schools and back — has never had a home that treats it like culture.
This is what Canadian basketball looks like right now. We’re building it a gallery.
Alleyoop Arts was founded by Damion Rashford, a former college basketball player from Pickering, Ontario who came back to the game through art. The rest of the story is in the work.
The pass is the play.